Hallow, a Catholic prayer and meditation app, has responded to criticism it received for partnering with actor Liam Neeson for its 2023 Advent prayer challenge. Neeson, who voiced the character of Aslan in “The Chronicles of Narnia” movies, has previously advocated for abortion rights.
“We’ve received a lot of feedback over the last few days on the Advent challenge, with many folks really excited and many, understandably, upset, hurt, or confused,” said Hallow CEO Alex Jones in a lengthy statement. “Many have asked questions about Hallow’s stance on issues of Church teaching.”
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“[I] want to start by saying that Hallow stands proudly and unequivocally in support of all Catholic Church teaching, especially the pro-life stance of the Church and the [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’] affirmation of the end of abortion as the preeminent priority,” Jones said. “It is a heartbreakingly important issue that we as an organization, and I personally, take very seriously.”
Liam Neeson’s Hallow Partnership Receives Pushback
Hallow is a Catholic app that facilitates prayer and meditation. Its celebrity partners include actors Jim Caviezel, Mark Wahlberg, Mel Gibson and Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the TV series “The Chosen.”
Hallow’s website says that this year’s Advent prayer challenge, which begins today, will feature “reflections based on different works of Lewis, including ‘The Four Loves,’ ‘Mere Christianity,’ ‘The Great Divorce,’ and more.” Actors from “The Chosen” facilitated the app’s Advent prayer challenge for 2022.
Liam Neeson, whose acting career spans more than four decades, is known for films including “Schindler’s List” (for which he received an Academy Award nomination), “The Phantom Menace,” “Batman Begins,” “Les Misérables,” and “Taken,” as well as “The Chronicles of Narnia” trilogy. The “Narnia” movies were based on C.S. Lewis’ popular children’s series, and Neeson’s character, Aslan, is a Christ figure.
Neeson was raised in the Catholic church, and in a 2017 interview voiced his belief that “God is love, love is God.” He said, “I have had personal experiences of God’s love, beautiful and calming, all the things the Psalms talk about.”
However, Neeson has also used his voice in support of abortion. For example, in 2015, he took part in an advertisement urging voters to repeal the eighth amendment of Ireland’s constitution, which banned abortion except for when pregnancy endangers the life of the mother.
